Australia’s Hughes says demons banished, again

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Phillip Hughes has declared himself ready to grab his third chance as an Australian test cricketer at Hobart this week and a far better batsman than the nervy swiper who blew his second shot at the same ground a year ago.

The 24-year-old batsman will replace the retired Ricky Ponting for the first test against Sri Lanka starting on Friday, and might be forgiven for feeling butterflies as he walks out onto the crease at Bellerive Oval.

Hughes’s last innings at the picturesque ground ended with a dismissal of depressing familiarity in the second test loss against New Zealand.

It was his fourth in the two-test series off the bowling of seamer Chris Martin, his edge also the fourth to end up in the hands of fellow opener Martin Guptill, who snaffled the Australian twice in the gully at Brisbane and twice at second slip in Hobart. The four identical caught-and-bowled’s read like an epitaph for Hughes’s second career, as selectors promptly threw him into the freezer for a year.

Coming out of the cold 12 months later, Hughes, long considered susceptible to short-pitched bowling, appeared wide-eyed and a bit flighty as he responded to verbal bouncers from reporters in Hobart on Tuesday.

“It was about 12 months ago to nearly the day I got dropped,” Hughes said with a nervous laugh, after stumbling with his words.

“Twelve months down the track I feel like I’m in a better place now. “I’m coming in with confidence but overall I feel just a lot more I suppose settled, I feel very calm knowing I have been in this environment before.”